Second Life suffers from growing pains

Falling house prices in the US, unsold properties and builders dramatically cutting starts on new homes might as well be in another world to the residents of Second Life, the online universe where construction is booming to keep pace with rampant immigration.

One resident of the rapidly expanding multiplayer online game has made the ranks of real world millionaires – by building shopping malls and homes as a virtual property developer and selling them to other players for real dollars. And a new breed of web services firms is emerging to satisfy demand from corporations who, rather than a new website, want to recreate their brands and offices in a three-dimensional online universe.